The announcement that President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the brand new chief of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers has introduced renewed consideration to many feedback the nominee has made about public well being.
Kennedy was introduced as Trump’s choose on November 14. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he’ll lead a division that oversees myriad companies that regulate vital public well being applications and conduct scientific analysis. The checklist contains the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, the Meals and Drug Administration and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. That implies that Kennedy may have a hand in drug and vaccine approvals, meals security and extra, points that contact nearly everybody.
Lots of Kennedy’s views on well being points run counter to many years of analysis and broad scientific and medical consensus, but he has gained a public following. Right here’s a take a look at the established science behind among the key points Kennedy has raised prior to now and which may be impacted below the brand new administration.
Truth: Vaccines save lives
Kennedy is a dominant pressure within the anti-vaccine motion (SN: 5/11/21). He advised podcaster Lex Fridman in a July 2023 interview, “There’s no vaccine that’s, you understand, secure and efficient.”
Not true. When it comes to effectiveness, the World Well being Group says, “vaccines have saved extra human lives than another medical invention in historical past” — reward that’s backed by ample proof.
In the US, a slew of infectious illnesses, together with polio, diphtheria, measles and smallpox, brought about tons of of hundreds of instances of sickness within the twentieth century. By the tip of that century, instances had dropped by 95 to one hundred pc, primarily because of the widespread introduction of vaccines.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 vaccination prevented 14.4 million deaths globally within the first 12 months it was obtainable, from December 2020 to December 2021, researchers reported within the Lancet Infectious Ailments in 2022.
And analysis on the useful impression of vaccines retains coming. Since 1974, vaccination in opposition to 14 pathogens has prevented 154 million deaths worldwide, most of them amongst kids: Immunization averted 146 million deaths amongst youngsters youthful than 5, researchers reported within the Lancet in Could.
In the US, routine childhood immunizations for youths born from 1994 to 2023 can have staved off an estimated 508 million instances of sickness, stopped 32 million hospitalizations and prevented 1.1 million kids from dying, researchers reported within the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in August.
The unfold of misinformation and disinformation on vaccine security has an extended historical past however now reaches many extra folks by way of social media (SN: 11/11/21). Kennedy’s personal Instagram account was taken down from 2021 to 2023 for posting debunked claims concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. Frequent misinformation concerning the security of vaccines has been refuted by a big physique of proof. For instance, vaccines don’t diminish the physique’s capacity to mount an immune response.
Vaccines are examined in folks for security and effectiveness earlier than being licensed by the FDA. After approval, a number of nationwide surveillance methods proceed to observe vaccine security.
“Vaccines are the most secure and most cost-effective option to defend kids, households and communities from illness, incapacity and loss of life,” Benjamin Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, mentioned in a press release on November 15.
Truth: The measles vaccine doesn’t trigger autism
Anti-vaccine advocates together with Kennedy proceed to push the debunked notion that vaccines trigger autism. A paper printed in 1998 within the Lancet presupposed to discover a hyperlink between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism. The paper, primarily based on falsified knowledge, was later retracted, however the harm was executed, and the concept vaccines normally may trigger autism took off (SN: 5/11/21).
The science is settled: There may be no proof that means vaccines — or any of the elements in them – trigger autism spectrum problems.
The causes of autism aren’t identified, however they’re probably complicated (SN: 10/16/18; SN: 7/29/11). Present considering is targeted on variations in mind growth early in life, in all probability even within the womb. Scientists are exploring genetic variations and variations in how neurons develop as potential hyperlinks, and are investigating methods to search for the dysfunction early in life (SN: 2/27/14; SN: 1/11/19; SN: 4/10/17).
Truth: Fluoride in water strengthens tooth
Earlier this month, Kennedy introduced his purpose of eradicating fluoride from ingesting water.
A naturally occuring mineral, fluoride has a particular superpower: It could possibly rebuild tooth. When acid from micro organism eats away at tooth enamel, fluoride can breach the hole and entice different sturdy minerals corresponding to calcium and phosphate to latch on. This course of, known as remineralization, retains cavities at bay.
That’s why fluoride has been added to water provides in the US because the Forties – a transfer described in 1999 by the CDC as one of many 10 nice public well being achievements of the twentieth century.
Kennedy and different fluoride skeptics argue that the mineral damages the rising brains of kids. And in excessive doses, it could. There have been studies of fluoride toxicity from all over the world. However because the saying goes, the dose makes the poison. In the US, the optimum dose of fluoride is ready at 0.7 milligrams per liter of water, properly under ranges which have been linked to hurt.
Some communities which have eliminated fluoride from municipal water provides have famous an increase in tooth decay. In Canada, kids in Calgary, the place fluoridation was stopped in 2011, had extra decay than neighboring youngsters in Edmonton, the place fluoride stayed in water. Comparable tendencies of extra dental decay have turned up in Israel, which stopped fluoridating water in 2014, and in Juneau, Alaska, the place fluoridation was stopped in 2007.
Cavities can result in ache, hassle speaking and consuming, social and psychological hurt. Untreated tooth decay, in youngsters and adults, may cause loss of life. Fluoridated water is backed by medical organizations together with the World Well being Group, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Affiliation.
Truth: Microbes in uncooked milk could make folks sick
In an Oct. 25 publish on X, Kennedy accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of a laundry checklist of gear, one in every of which was uncooked milk.
Uncooked milk hasn’t been pasteurized, a course of that heat-treats meals merchandise to kill dangerous microbes (SN: 11/18/22). Proponents checklist quite a lot of causes to drink uncooked milk, together with the declare that some micro organism in uncooked milk may very well be useful for intestine well being. However these micro organism come from cows or the farm setting, and solely microbes that come from folks will be an asset to our well being.
Pasteurization to kill the unhealthy stuff is essential for meals security, in keeping with each the FDA and CDC. Individuals who drink uncooked milk may very well be uncovered to foodborne micro organism corresponding to E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria, all of which may trigger extreme sickness.
What’s extra, genetic traces of fowl flu have proven up in milk amid an outbreak in U.S. dairy cows (SN: 4/25/24). Whereas pasteurization kills the virus, it may stick round in uncooked milk and pose an an infection danger. Mice that eat virus-spiked milk can get contaminated with fowl flu, for instance, suggesting people may be in danger, too.
Truth: Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin don’t deal with COVID-19
Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two medicine that gained notoriety through the COVID-19 pandemic, have been additionally listed in Kennedy’s Oct. 25 X publish. Whereas early research executed on cells in dishes raised hopes that the therapies would possibly assist COVID sufferers, myriad research have since proven that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, and ivermectin, an antiparasitic, are ineffective in opposition to the coronavirus (SN: 8/2/20).
Regardless of the immense proof in opposition to the medicine’ use for COVID, some folks, together with Kennedy, proceed to falsely declare that they may have saved lives through the pandemic. In a July 2023 interview with Fox Information, Kennedy mentioned that fewer folks would have died if hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin had been obtainable to deal with COVID. The FDA had licensed hydroxychloroquine for emergency use within the pandemic’s early days. However the company pulled that authorization as a result of research confirmed it was no higher than a placebo at stopping or dampening the illness (SN: 6/15/20).
